Weeks later, National Park Service ranger Rob Turan was working with a hurricane response team when he found the note, still in the bottle and buried in debris from the storm. “It was a real message in a bottle,” Turan told the Times-Picayune. He made copies of the letter, handing them out to people helping with the disaster recovery, in the hopes of finding out whether the girl and her family survived the storm. Then, “I took it home and had it framed,” he told the Times-Picayune. “For almost eight years I’ve looked at it every day and wondered about [Angela].”

A reporter at the Times-Picayune heard about Turan’s mission to find the author of the note and stepped in to help, tracking down Caballeros and getting her to agree to meet with the man who found her message in a bottle. When Turan and Caballeros met, Caballeros recounted the tale of how her family survived Katrina, huddling together in the attic before a helicopter eventually came to rescue them from the flood waters. Turan returned the note to the now college student, promising to stay in touch. “I think I’ve made a lifelong friend,” Rob said of the young woman who’s message haunted him for so many years.

This is a great story. Glad Angela and her family were safely rescued. It must have been a dire situation if she resorted to a message in a bottle to communicate with the outside world. One question: How hard would it be to find someone within the disaster zone who has signed their full name, in eight years?